Wireless communication systems for serving the connectivity needs of portable transceivers are rapidly evolving into linked, multi-speed wireless networks. For example, a wireless wide area network (WAN) may provide relatively low speed connectivity throughout a metropolitan area, while numerous wireless short range networks (SRNs) also may exist throughout the area for providing short range high speed connectivity where needed. Portable transceivers that are capable of peer-to-peer communications, e.g., Bluetooth devices, also can create ad hoc SRNs with one another that can operate independently of fixed portions of the wireless communications system. These ad hoc SRNs may also include connections to devices in wired networks.
Sometimes, a controller in a wireless or wired network may determine a need for information that is available from a device that is connected to the network, or from another transceiver within the same network or ad hoc network as the first transceiver. The information may be of many different types, and a good example is server-assisted differentially corrected global positioning system (GPS) information, which can greatly enhance the sensitivity and accuracy of a GPS receiver that may be used by the portable transceiver for location determination. Typically, the network server has been centrally located, e.g., at the site of a central controller of the wireless communications system, and has been accessed through the wireless WAN. Accessing the network server for assisted location information can generate a moderate amount of additional traffic in the wireless WAN when a large number of the portable transceivers are GPS equipped. Although this traffic is undesirable, it is a relative low overhead compared to the total traffic supported by the WAN.
In addition, many portable transceivers, or fixed wired network devices which have wireless SRN capabilities, will not have location finding capability, yet could benefit from location information either locally, or within a network. Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for assigning location estimates from a first transceiver of a plurality of transceivers to a second transceiver to provide estimates to devices that do not have location determination capabilities. Preferably, the method and apparatus will operate to reduce the wireless WAN traffic required to seek and transfer the information, thereby allowing the WAN to operate efficiently without undue system overhead.